Friday, May 30, 2014

Tempus Fugit, Y'all

I did the math, and I know my calculation is correct: 2014 - 1976 = 38. Can that be right? Seems impossible! 38 years?!? 

Yes, dear readers, we celebrated another anniversary this week...well, actually TWO anniversaries, if you want to get specific. We've been married 38 years, and we've been in this house 5 years. Wow...on both counts!

To honor our 5-year anniversary at Casa 3917, Mr. T took this week off, and we have made a big dent in the never-ending To Do List. The most visible of the accomplishments is our "new" red front door. And when I say red, I mean RED. Check it out:



Whenever we have visited England, I was struck by the glossy shine on most front doors. Gorgeous! I have wanted to recreate that look since my first trip in 1997. Yes, I can be a slow-starter sometimes, but truth-be-told, I simply didn't know how they did it. That was no latex paint there. I read what I could find on the internet, but we don't seem to have many sources for high-gloss, oil-based paints here in the States.

Then, when Missy M was prepping her house for sale, she decided to paint her front door (something she'd been meaning to do for the 8 years she lived there!). We found Glidden's Trim and Door paint at the Home Depot and we thought we had a winner: a thick, gel, oil-based, high-gloss paint product. She chose a traditional black, and several days later (it takes 3 days for the paint to fully "cure"), and her door looked fantastic! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

Our door is wood and was finished in an oak stain. But it had faded badly on the exterior. Badly. When we first saw this house, I said: "we will have to do something about that door." Still, we lived with it for five years because I couldn't decide what to do about it. When I saw that the Glidden paint came in two colors of red (Classic Red and National Red), I knew I could get two wishes granted in one fell swoop: I could have a glossy, red front door. So guess what I asked for my anniversary gift?

I thought the National Red color would go better with the "tumbled" brick on our house, and Mr. T suggested that we paint the side-light surrounds black to match the shutters. We were right on both counts! 

And Mr. T's gift from me? Well, I checked to see what the "modern" gift for the 38th anniversary is (there is no "traditional" gift listed) and found what was suggested:

38th Wedding Anniversary Modern Gifts: Beryl or Tourmaline

Really? Beryl?!? I didn't even know what that meant! Looked it up and found that emerald is the green variety of beryl (seems there are many colors of the mineral), and I would love me some emerald...:-). But Mr. T? Hmmmm. Not really a gemstone kinda guy.

I was mindful that we were missing something we both love to hear when we enjoy our screen porch-..., or deck-...,  or patio-time: the sound of a fountain. Alas, the fountain that Mr. T had created using a large urn-styled planter had not survived the winter. So I began trolling various sites to find a suitable replacement. Voilá...here it is, looking right at home among the citrus trees:



The gifts are just tokens to mark the date...and truthfully, to underscore our profound amazement at this milestone. I mean:  T H I R T Y  –  E I G H T! It's not that we either thought our marriage was destined for the rocks...we were too much in love to think anything like that. It's just that neither of us, when we toasted our future at our wedding reception in Jackson, MS, envisioned that 38 years later, we would be celebrating our anniversary, living in High Point, NC!  Here we are, first at our wedding...followed by taking a selfie at Austin's, our go-to restaurant in HPNC, toasting our anniversary.





Yes, time flies, y'all. We're older...grayer...and hopefully wiser. And we're still "much in love." Happy 38!





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